R Mahalakshmi-Frontline

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Home Minister Amit Shah speaking at a seminar titled “Guptvanshak Veer: Skandagupta Vikramaditya” at Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, on October 17, 2019. Hailing Skandagupta as a great king, he said that history had not given him his due and called for more efforts to ensure the writing of history from a nationalistic perspective.

BJP attempt to rewrite textbooks a disservice to history

A parliamentary panel report on ‘reforms’ in school history textbooks attacks established scholarship and suggests controversial inclusions, in line w

A joint meeting of members of the National Steering Committee and focus groups for the NCERT National Curriculum framework review held in Hyderabad on March 6, 2005.

Communalising history textbooks

The recent as well as past attacks on history textbooks, with those engaged in distorting Indian history seeking to use textbooks to push their politi

D.N. Jha. “The cow is used for marginalising both Muslims and Dalits.”

D.N. Jha: A historian as myth buster

Professor D.N. Jha (1940-2021) sought to bring the dis-privileged into the historical canvas and celebrated pluralism and dissent in his writings.

The Udayagiri and Khandagiri caves near Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The caves were excavated by Kharavela and his successors. The great Kharavela of the Chedi dynasty who ruled this region in the second-first century BCE boasts in the famous Prakrit Hathigumpha inscription about his sending of armies to, and subsequent conquest of, Bharatavasa/varsa.

How India’s historians have reflected on the country’s history, culture and heritage

One of the greatest issues for historians has been the geographical understanding of India, as well as its cultural and civilisational edifice. While

Prof. Vasant Shinde and Dr Niraj Rai during the release of the results of the DNA analysis to the media in New Delhi on September 6.

DNA analysis of Harappan skeleton from Rakhigarhi: Thin evidence

The scientific paper on the DNA analysis of the Harappan skeleton from Rakhigarhi claims that there was no Aryan invasion and no Aryan migration and t

The District Collector of Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh, offering country liquor to Goddess Mahamaya at a temple on the occasion of Durgashtami during Navaratri festival in October 2010. Scholars have argued that despite the brahmanical claim of assimilation, such “non-vegetarian” gods and goddesses represent a different world view of the marginalised and oppressed people.

Invention of tradition

Tradition, often used to legitimise practices of religious inclusion and exclusion, is not a monolithic given but is shaped by social contexts. It has

New history of ancient past

The three books foreground the importance of the present in formulating questions and agendas for the study of India’s historical past.

FL BOOKS 25-5-16 Upinder

New insights into ancient India

An important contribution to studies on Indian history, with some essays in the collection revisiting old themes and sources and others focussing on n

Digital Capture

Tradition of exclusion

In history, untouchables, be they men or women, sudras or tribal people, were not meant to enter sacred precincts. Notions of purity and pollution wer

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